


You are Hope

by Of_Princes_and_Savages



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Also on Tumblr, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon can eat my sock, Character Death in Zelena's case, F/M, Hope Hood-Mills, Hope for the Rumbaby, Implied post-humous Zades, My happy ending, No making out by a yet unburied casket, That's what I'm naming Baby Hood, Which I was rooting for actually, spoilers for Last Rites
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 12:53:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6805363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Of_Princes_and_Savages/pseuds/Of_Princes_and_Savages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world could use more hope. It was a perfect name for an innocent baby to grow up in an unpredictable world.</p><p>OR!</p><p>The AU ending of Last Rites that isn't tasteless and appeals to all canon ships. Read it and smile, you deserve it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You are Hope

Hades was banished back to the Underworld, and Regina had never been so glad to have the Charming Family run to the rescue. Hell, she would’ve been impressed alone that Snow White and Charming broke into the library to find the way to do it. With books, and planning and everything.

Zelena...Regina had tried to give her sister a chance. ( _Again,_ if she were honest.) But Zelena had crossed the line one too many times and she was sent back to the Underworld right after Hades.

Henry told her later that he’d never been so glad to see his mother go “full Evil Queen” on someone.

The Charmings and Emma took him away from the mayor’s office not long afterwards. And Regina was left alone with the ashes of a god and her sister’s heart, and rapidly cooling body.

And then Robin wrapped the arm not holding his wriggling daughter around her. And kissed her temple.

“I am sorry you had to do this to your sister,” he murmured, and the sheer sincerity, the fact that he worried about her right now, when he nearly lost his life...

Regina hid her face in his neck, breathing in the woodsy smell Robin always carried and absently touching the soft pink blanket wrapping his daughter. She didn’t feel like facing whatever feelings she had over her sister right now. She just wanted to be reminded that Robin Hood was still there.

Right where she needed him.

* * *

 

Regina was the only attendant at the funeral. Again, Robin was there, under the umbrella Regina held over them.

It always rained during Storybrooke funerals...

Emma was standing over by the other new grave, marked **Killian Jones**. She’d left a flask of rum on the grave. Regina supposed that was more appropriate than flowers. She may not have understood what Emma saw in Captain Guy-liner, but...this seemed harsh. Extremely harsh.

The baby girl whimpered, and Robin Hood shushed her, angling her small face towards the gravestone marked **Zelena Mills-May she find her peace**. Regina supposed that believing Zelena could change for the love of her child was wishful-thinking. And Lord knew how this poor baby came to be still put a foul taste in her mouth.

But once Cora restored her lost memories, Regina was forced to wonder what could have happened if Zelena hadn’t been so jealous and bitter in life...

Maybe she would be happy ruling the Underworld with Hades.

“I may not want like it,” Robin murmured, bouncing his daughter lightly. “But she was your mother. You deserve to know that. So say goodbye, little one.”

Regina felt herself smile when the baby gurgled.

Wearing a little white bonnet, she didn’t look much like the daughter of a wicked witch. Well, Regina supposed, Henry didn’t look much like he was raised by the Evil Queen. It occurred to Regina, then, that it was over: No more kidnapping witch-mothers, no more Underworld, Storybrooke was at peace for the moment.

“So...have you thought about what to name her?” Regina asked hesitantly. She wasn’t sure what protocol was for this sort of situation.

Robin nodded, giving her a soft smile. “I have. You know, you may have wanted to return to the ways of The Evil Queen when I first met you, but you have the most remarkable capacity for hope I’ve ever known.”

Regina snorted. “Hope? Don’t confuse me with Snow.”

“No, I mean it. For as long as I’ve known you, you’ve hoped for the best. It may not have always happened for us, but you never gave up. I want my daughter, well, I’d like her to have your strength.”

For an absurd moment, Regina thought he would name her Regina Jr., but only for a moment.

“And...?” she waited.

“Hope. I’m going to call her Hope.”

The baby cooed, grasping with her small hand as if agreeing with her father’s choice. Regina smiled, leaning on Robin’s side as they began walking away from the grave. Later Regina would check on Emma, after her well-meaning parents had stopped badgering her. Lord knew Regina was the most experienced with losing loved ones...

Except for Rumple.

Maybe she should check in on her former teacher too. She’d been too worried with Zelena to realize that Belle was pregnant in the Underworld, and Rumple made bad choices when Belle didn’t keep him grounded. Like rewriting reality. She’d come close to losing everything then too...but she still had that flicker of hope, hadn’t she?

That tiny, fragile hope that things could improve.

Hope.

Regina liked it.

And later, when she realized the whoop she heard in the graveyard wasn’t a bird because Killian and Emma were walking down the street arm-in-arm, and when she and Henry managed to talk Rumple out of whatever overcomplicated ploy he was about to try to wake Belle up, (because her douchebag father was, well, a douche,) and eventually they woke up the Sleeping Bookworm to have her own baby...

Regina decided that Hope Hood-Mills was the perfect name for this innocent baby that had to grow up in an unpredictable world. The world could use more hope.

It hadn’t failed them yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Is this better than the canon ending or what? Everybody's got the potential for a happy ending, SOMEBODY remembered Rumbelle, Hook is still brought back to life for ye who wanted that, and Baby Hood isn't named after her dead daddy who died defending the people he loved...because that's what happens on this show.
> 
> Screw you canon! Mwahahaha!


End file.
